Mark Mariani, Builder to the Stairs?

Why isn't this man smiling?
Perhaps it's because he's just lowered the prices of two of his unsold projects, 10 Dairy Road (the terminal resting place of Andy Kissel, bound, stabbed and no longer investing in earthly things) from $10,750,000 to $8,450,000 and One Meadowcroft, from $14,500,000 to $13,500,000. The latter reduction is a mere 7% off ask, but a million bucks is still a million bucks, or so I was led to believe.

So how's this town's most aggressive spec builder doing? From what I hear, he tells anyone who'll listen that he's doing just fine, "no worries, mate". But he has at least three unsold projects on the market and, if this article's right, 250 people on his payroll. That's a lot, eh?


By the way, for an interesting look back at Hedge Fund Greenwich as it was just a year ago, check out this article in Vanity Fair. Things have changed - permanently? I doubt it; we're all just waiting for the next crop of Masters of the Universe to emerge from the primordial ooze. Though I do worry, sometimes, that we natives are like the Cargo Cultists of Vanuatu who were blessed during World War II by manna falling from heaven when planes were shot down or had to ditch. For years after that conflict ended (and in fact, continuing today) the natives constructed crude replicas of airplanes, hoping to encourage the Gods to return with more largess. Should we be building mock trading floors?

Update: I notice that 10 Dairy Road's address has been changed back to its original number, 8. Did the Post Office require this or did Mariani decide that the stigma attaching to the property because of Mr. Kissel's unfortunate demise had passed? Beats me.
A reader asked about the third Mariani spec house on Sabine Farms (actually, 27 Doverton, off of Sabine). That house is a mirror image to the Dairy Road house but, perhaps because of its location off Round Hill Road, was originally priced at $11.750 million. Now it's down to $8.450 so it's obvious that, at least as Mariani has come to see things, identical houses should command identical prices, regardless of location (or dead bodies).

Realtor-ese
A recurring topic because we real estate agents are so darn creative! In no particular order:
"Lake": any body of water large enough to hold a (small) frog.
"Trout Stream": any trickle of water too small to be called a lake.
"Renovated": if no mention is made of anything specific, assume that there's nothing to mention, so count on the dust bunnies having been swept from under the beds and, maybe, ashes cleaned from the fireplace.
"On the Stamford/Greenwich border": in Stamford
"Enjoy as is, renovate or start anew": Reserve a dumpster.
"Has great potential": Reserve a dumpster.
"Convenient to transportation": backs up to I-95.
"Not a drive-by": It's a drive by - and keep driving.
"Must see": Same advice - keep driving.
"Motivated Seller": We can't possibly unload the place at its current price but the dumbass seller won't publicly admit it - bring a low-ball offer and let's talk.
"Won't last": It did, or we wouldn't still be advertising the turkey.

Send in your own favorites and I'll add them here.

Reader Updates: "seasonal water views". Go up on the roof, climb a step ladder and wow!. I myself, because I'm a truthful sort of guy, prefer to call these nature sightings "seasonal water glimpses".

"Much loved" = obsolete

"Charming" = small

Cozy – means that it’s really a dollhouse or doghouse

New paint – it’s amazing how far $5 per gallon paint goes

New carpet – covering up the scratched hardwood floors

Close to Park – SO close that you’ll never find a parking spot
Peaceful backyard– because 36,000 cars drive by the front yard each day.
Professionally remodeled – the owner and their siblings didn’t do the work, the neighbor’s sister’s husband’s son did.

Movable center island – the kids ran into it so many times it came loose.

Quaint - it’s pink!

Steps to the creek – be ready to sandbag the front yard each spring.

On golf course – high insurance for broken windows

"Classic": brand-new, trying to look established

"Georgian": anything with stone, no matter how little of it, on any part of the facade, even if you need a magnifying glass to find it.

"Condo alternative" - so small that only a single person or couple can live in it.

"Compound" or "retreat" sounds like it's in the middle of a war zone

"First time on market in 70 years" : Last updated when Grandpa sold the horse and used the proceeds to replace the outhouse.

"Lovingly maintained"--the harvest gold appliances still work like a charm and the sheet vinyl in the kitchen has been so carefully patched, you'll hardly notice.

Riverside/Old Greenwich vs. Mid and Back Country?

It all depends on your taste. I grew up in Riverside and raised my own children there and really enjoyed the ability to find friends to play with in every back yard. Of course these days, where there is no such thing as pick-up game of baseball and "playdates" are scheduled 5 years in advance, there is less opportunity for spontaneous fun but it was still nice not to have to chauffeur my kids around - they'd walk or bike home from school, stopping by a friend's house on the way and we'd see them in time for dinner. Great stuff.

But other people feel suffocated by the close quarters - a claustrophobia made worse in the past 50 years by the constant erection of new houses and the destruction of the meadows and woods that used to be here. They'd no sooner live in a house 25' from their neighbor than drive an old beater car to the station. Aaaghh! And I understand that (well, the former, if not the latter). I worked with a great couple who lived in Riverside but, the more I listened, the more I heard that the husband, who'd grown up on lots of land in the mid-west, felt cramped on a piddling 1/3 acre and the wife was more interested in a classic pre-War home than she was its location. I suggested we look at a great old house on two acres, with a pool, that was selling for the same price as Riverside homes on far less land and with far less charm and they loved it. The move made perfect sense for them.

The one complaint I hear from Back Country parents is about the driving - 45 minutes to drop kid #1 to soccer practice and kid #2 at a friends house, then go home for 1/2 an hour and repeat the process. If your kids are old enough to drive, that's not an issue.

So yes: per square foot, Riverside and Old Greenwich are more expensive and have been for a long time - families with young children particularly want to live in the area. The trade off is in privacy and room - some people insist on those, others do without them for the convenience. The nice thing about Greenwich is that there's room enough to satisfy both tastes.

82 Buckfield

Here's a nice house in the Back Country that was, I think, aggressively priced back in 2005 at $4.790 million. It languished for awhile at that price, was pulled, and eventually returned at $4.495 million. Today the sellers chopped a cool million from that and now ask $3.495 (do I have to do all the mathematical heavy lifting around here?). I wish for the sellers' sake that they'd started here, when the market was stronger - ok, when there was a market at all - but it's now a lot of house for a reasonable amount of money. I wish the sellers well.

5 Raymond Street, Old Greenwich

When this house (click on title above for listing details) was last on the market back in 2004 it was listed at $1.625 million and sold quickly at full asking price. That was then. It's now on the market again - the listing claims it was "renovated" in 2008 but I'm pretty sure that's just realtor speak for tidied up and painted. In May, the seller asked $2.250 million; it's now down to $1.788, still 10% over what they paid for it four years ago. If the seller is lucky he'll manage to break even, in my opinion.

Happy news from happy Realtors What downturn? Every thing's great and now's the perfect time to buy a house, says this economist. Don't let the fact that he works for the National Association of Realtors throw you for even one instant. He couldn't say it if it weren't true, right?

You say Hello, and I say Dubai

Like castles built on sand, the Dubai real estate boom is crashing. Too bad.

Dean Barnett has died. Dean was best known, perhaps, in the Bloggers' world but he was also a guest host on the Hugh Hewitt Show, a writer for the Weekly Standard, and one of the longest living cystic fibrosis sufferers. His description of that disease, and his courageous refusal to be daunted by it, can be found here.

Dean and I were just email friends, though he liked my books and even plugged one - probably sold a couple of hundred copies for me, for which I remain grateful. What I regret is that, despite several attempts, we never met for dinner. At first we were going to meet half way between his home in Boston and mine, then I said I'd come up to Boston just for the pleasure. His health dropped off around then and we never had the chance again. I guess my point is, don't pass up such opportunities - make it a point to catch up with friends, go that extra mile. Because it sucks when it's too late.

Rentals
These are hard to track because the data aren't reported in any easily accessible format but basically, rentals are holding their own. 35 single family homes rented in the past two months compared with 27 for the same period last year (there are currently an additional 211 SF homes available for rent, so we're not exactly burning through our inventory). What's harder to find, however, without examining each listing and comparing its original listing price: $15,000, for instance, and its actual rented price -$10,000, is how much rents have fallen, if at all. I know that each day the realtors' hot sheet is stuffed with rental reductions; what I don't have is a specific number from which to compute that decline. If I did any rental business I might be tempted to spend the hours necessary to determine that number but I don't, so I won't. But I do feel safe in suggesting that, if you have a good tenant in your property now and the rent's coming up for renewal,this isn't the time to do so.

(Non -real estate subject matter - reader discretion is strongly advised. Back later, after open house tour to report on that soggy mess.)

The decline of America, as predicted by Pete DuPont in the WSJ . DuPont's not the first to see and warn against this disaster but, given the likely result in next week's election, he may be the last - after that his type will be describing, not predicting. I have no reason to believe that,even if they were to read DuPont's article, Americans would vote differently. In Russia, most citizens, especially young citizens, feel no revulsion towards Stalin and would vote for him tomorrow, should he reappear. Lucky them if he does, eh? But I read recently in the WSJ of a focus group of likely American voters who felt that they wanted Obama in the White House because he'd bring us back to the Reagan era, "when the government ran all the big businesses and everything worked great."

Obama promises fat welfare checks to (almost) everyone but since few folks are willing to admit that they're on the dole, he calls them "tax credits". " Say ya don't pay taxes? No matter,son, here's a credit - go buy some food stamps fur that fine fambly of yurs and don't forget to vote Demmerkratic, cause we's the ones who done give you this, straight from the wallets of the rich." American voters are lapping this stuff up. Free health care, paid for with pixie dust! An end to suffering! Finally, a parking space right in front of the video store! And no one pays for any of this except the kazillion-trillion millionaires out there who'll just keep plugging away, earning income so the Anointed One can redistribute it to us. Glory, Hallelujah, mine eyes have seen the coming!

This kind of abysmal ignorance, coupled with the inherent greed of so many people who relish the idea of getting their paws on something someone else owns will ensure our decline. The people want change? Boy are they going to get it.

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

Collect $20 billion from us taxpayers, pay yourselves $13 billion in bonuses -
That's what Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have planned. I try very hard to retain my enthusiam and support for free enterprise and capitalism. That's hard to do when the top pigs put their snouts deep into the feed trough and release the resulting byproduct on the rest of us. The Wall Streeters may think they're just enjoying getting fat on dumb taxpayers; their hoggish behavior may produce another result entirely.

Here's a surprise. Home sales go up as prices decline. Something tells me that there's an economic principle to be discovered here.

Update: Floyd Norris of the NYT says those are fudged figures and that new home sales are lower than they've been since 1991.

Well darn.
Tony Hillerman is dead at 83. I really enjoyed his books and will miss his writing.

If Bush is elected President our civil liberties will be .... Oh no, that's happening in liberal Canada, where real estate agents are required to snoop for the government. Name, federal id #, source of funds, etc. must all be collected by agents from their clients and forwarded to the government so that terrorists can be captured. If a buyer is even from another province he must personally prove his identity in a face to face meeting with an agent there before that agent can pass him along to an agent in the next province.

That sucks but if you don't like that aspect of Canadian life, consider this: I spent the weekend with a great bunch of Canadians in a very much apolitical setting. To a man, they complained about their health care system - if you're in pain, but the situation isn't life threatening, you can wait as long as 2 years for surgery. Those of us so joyously awaiting next Tuesday's anointment and the coming of the solution to our health insurance problems might want to schedule surgery now, rather than wait til after January's coronation.

Here's a dubious marketing idea: Selling real estate to fellow Christians. Apparently there are real estate agents out there who make direct appeals to Muslims and Jews, too, but I find the whole idea off-putting. If it works, though, look for a Crescent and a star and a cross on my next business card. I'm nothing if not polytheistic.

Well Good! U.S. attacks terrorists in Syria.
Syria's Ambassador to the U.K. says,

""This is an outrageous raid which is against international law. It is a terrible crime."

To which I say, "please sir, can we have some more?"

163 Old Church Road

This was reduced today a little over 6% from $3.750 Million to $3.5. I mentioned earlier this month that there were 3 houses on Old Church Road all in this price range and all unsold. One, 149, has dropped it price from $3.795 to $2.950, now 163 is seeing the light, albeit dimly. The hold out is #56, which came on at $3.750 million and has stuck fast at that price, regardless of what the market says. Good luck to all of them. Two of them, at least, are very nice houses.

276 Riversville Road has been returned to the market with a new price of $3.3 million - it didn't sell back in 2004 at $4.495 million, so one can't really say that this new price reflects an actual drop of market value but, as the property is owned by a real estate professional is is an indication of what he felt the market would sustain then and where he thinks the market is now. Of course, he was obviously wrong in 2004, so take this drop for what it's worth.

As of today, Monday morning at 9 AM, we have recorded 9 contracts for single family homes in the month. In October of last year, when the sub-prime disaster had begun to unfold and the market was beginning its nosedive, 33 houses went to contract. So we're down about 70% from there but the week is young - maybe we'll see a strong performance during the next five days. We saw 14 contracts in the last 8 business days of October, 2007 and it would be great if we duplicated that this year - I don't think we will.

Off to the woods

I'm heading inland and will walk until no one recognizes the computer on my shoulder. Back Sunday night. So why the picture of a sailboat? Captures the feeling and its title is "Truant Sailing Away". My kind of kid.

See you next week.

Interesting if true
I have no idea how to link to his individual posts (his blog setup's problem not mine, I think) but here's a lengthy quote from Greenwich Round Up on the future, or lack thereof, of Greenwich Time. I've heard the same rumor for months but his appears to be better sourced.

"For months Greenwich Roundup has been exclusively reporting what a confidential source at the Stamford Advocate source has been telling us.

We are told that the Corporate Suits at Hearst Newspapers are going to slowly combine all of the daily newspapers like the Greenwich Time, that are now currently being printed in Bridgeport into one paper with the Connecticut Post masthead.

This much like how Gannet folded the Port Chester Daily Item, the Mamaroneck Times, New Rochelle Standard Star and close to another dozen Putnam, Rockland and Westchester newspapers into the regional newspaper called the Journal News which has the regional news website called LoHud.com , which stands for Lower Hudson, New York.

"Later the old newspaper mast heads were changed into free weekly newspapers that carried grocery and drug store ads on Thursdays and Friday's to non-Journal News subscribers. Town that did not have a daily newspaper were covered by half a dozen or so weekly newspapers that have a masthead with the Express name.

And this is what the the Corporate Suits at Hearst Newspapers have planned for Greenwich and other towns in Fairfield County. The Connecticut Post will be thrown on your front door each morning and the Greenwich Citizen will be a mailbox wrapper for slick ad papers, weather you are a subscriber or not.

This why Hearst Newspapers did not want the Greenwich Time offices and chose to temporarily rent a small office space in Riverside, CT. Maybe the Greenwich Citizen offices in Putnam Avenue will become a local news bureau and advertising sales office. Or maybe this office will be folded into the Bridgeport facility when the lease is up."

351 Round Hill Road

Not content with demanding all my money for redistribution

My pal Claudette wants my time, too and keeps asking about this property. Once she put her glasses on and gave me the right address I thought I'd answered her question but now she reports that people seem to be moving in. Anything for a friend. So far as I know, it's still for sale, and there's no record of it ever having been offered for rent or rented - doesn't mean a bunch of poor folks haven't expropriated it in the name of the People, of course - just ask Dr. Zhivago about that. It came on two years ago, its price has ranged from as high as $7,275,000 to the current low of $6,450,000 (11% less). Two brokers, it's back now with the first. I suspect that its failure to sell is unrelated to the choice of broker.